It's well known that most " lost sales"
in E-commerce, happen right at the shopping cart according to the studies. My own personal
experiences and thoughts, here's a few reasons why.

No shipping information
and cart shock:

Sticker shock at the cart end. 65% of
all online consumers, according to the stats, bail out of a transaction
and drop the shopping cart before the final purchase is made, because nobody
likes surprises !

While a customer shops, they keep a
running tally in their head of how much they are spending, much the same
as they do while shopping in our brick and mortar cousins, while filling
up their cart. But they already know how much extra they will pay in sales
taxes for their state, and mentally add it.

For E-tail there are added shipping
costs however, which varies. If they have no idea of your base line shipping
costs prior to the checkout, it means a shock at the cart. This can
be even worse if this information is not revealed until AFTER they put
in their credit card information or otherwise pay for the goods, which
is typical of many cart set ups. You might make the one sale, but they
may never trust you again.

Put the basic
information on your shipping rates, in an easy to find location, so they
have something to at least approximate it, and reduce the chance of cart
shock, as the check out total and their mental tally will come closer to
adding up.

Active Server
Order Pages that don't work effectively:

Asp pages where the customer fills out
a form, to make the final purchase at the cart, then hits the submit button
only to be told there is an "error please go back and correct " and
they do, only to find all the information
they put in, is gone !

This is easily corrected on most asp
form pages, unlike many other forms, by telling it not to wipe the page
until the session is complete, but its seldom done for " security" reasons.
But what you are, telling your customer by this action is, " I don't care
if you have to put everything back, because you missed one little thing."
You are telling them their time is not valuable.

Recipe for a dropped
shopping cart if I ever saw one ! The reason is a simple one, you have
just wasted their time. Your average shopper is a busy person and the most
oft repeated complaint is " I don't have time for this" and click goes
the mouse, off to somewhere else.

Not telling the
customer their payment options, before the sale, or forcing only one option
at the cart:

I have said this before, but it bears
repeating as massive amounts of money are lost daily in E-commerce due
to this inflexibility. It is another major reason for Cart drop.

The sites that make the customer get
all the way to the checkout before they say "Enter in your Credit Card
Number" as the only option for payment. Which is not made clear right up
front. Or only one kind of card is taken, or only ... you see the trend
here ?

The customers answer ? Drop the cart.

A growing segment of the population
does not depend on or even want to use a Credit card of any sort given
identity theft. Whatever their options or limits for payment types, must
be known upfront BEFORE they get to the checkout line to avoid cart
drop, as then they can make an informed choice.

Asking for too
much information on the order form:

All too often the cart itself, attempts
to get demographics on the buyer, age, race, gender etc. along with the
order information. Most people find this excessive and intrusive. Again
identity theft being foremost in their minds.

If you want demographics, get it somewhere
else. Give them a reason to give you that information, have them fill out
a survey for a 10% discount on their next order for example, but don't
make it part of the buy process.

An almost instant
cart drop of this sort is " put in your Phone number please " seen
on many shopping carts. The buyers first thought is, it's for tele-marketing.
Others before you, have abused their trust on this matter. If email is
good enough to make the order, then email should be good enough to contact
them is the current thought. The buyer expects to give you only what you
must have to ship them their goods and nothing more.

Making your first
time customer log in to add things to the cart:

People like to fill up the cart, it's
their wish list, they are comparison shopping, but you have stopped that
behavior if you force a commitment to buy before they even begin, by a
forced log in.

The prevalent thought is " what I have
to give you my name and email and give myself a password to even comparison
shop ? " That would be the same as having a doorman at the grocers ask
you for your name , address and banking information at a store you have
never been to, before they let you in the door. Which of course any reasonable
person would resent.

E-tailers have to remember the same
rules apply in web stores, as in the brick and mortar shops, which is where
most of us formed our shopping habits. The confirm to buy, does not happen
until they walk up with the shopping cart and the goods are rung up, Until
then, they should have the option of taking things in and out of the cart
at will, without hindrance or commitment.

Appearing to Gouge
the customer on shipping rates, especially on inexpensive items with flat
rate shipping:

The following example is true: The item
cost $.99 cents, the item weight 1.05 oz. however, the shipping at the
cart was $ 12.00 !

This is what can happen with flat rate
shipping costs, which, for the rest of the goods on the site in question
was reasonable, on this one item however, it failed miserably.

Statistics show, customers will risk
the least costly thing on the site, to put in the cart for their first
tentative purchase. Shock them like this and they will not only drop the
cart, they won't even attempt to look at the other goods you have. As they
will assume, if the cheapest thing you have is that bad on shipping, the
rest of your goods would be worse !

If you must do a flat rate or
such a
rate works for the rest of your goods, don't carry things that will
create
this massive disparity at the cart. As this extreme, but true, example
would get the cart dropped like a hot rock ! ( or if you must, as you
are a 3rd party vendor with a drop shipper, TELL the customer up front
this is the case and why you HAVE to do it, and they are more likely to
order a most costly item, or several of the smaller ones, to make it
worth the shipping you are being forced to charge, due to your drop
shipper )

It does not matter
how often you say, the cost is only $.99 cents, the fact is .. its
not ... as the above shows the cost is $12.99. The buyer does not break
down the cost of the goods VS the cost of shipping, they see the
total at the end of the tape ... that is the "price" ... period !

More shipping
problems: The shipping is more than the single item itself legitimately
even at cost and how to avoid Cart shock:

Now it's possible the shipping will be
more than the item costs, if you are selling something costly per unit
to ship
due to odd shape or weight. Single
votive candles come to mind as an example, as such candles are several
ounces, odd sized, easily damaged and can melt, all of which means they
require special handling and packaging, but are typically very cheap per
unit in price. There are many things just like it.

A better solution is to sell the " cheap
" items that have high per unit shipping rates, in fixed lots, say 10 units
minimum, then the ratio of goods to shipping costs, is more balanced, therefore
less chance of cart drop.

Another option is raising the cost of
the item, to be more than its shipping will be on one unit.

As with the prior
example: Almost nothing will make a customer drop the cart faster than
if the item costs more to ship, than the item itself is worth. They will
find a local alternative instead.

Adding excess
fixed rate shipping to out of the country sales, drops the cart:

It is a given it will cost more to ship
outside the country of origin, than within it, but this is another area
that has been much abused, mainly due to an attempt to fix a rate to cover
all possibilities.

I tell all international orders to email
me first before they order. I do this so I can compute exactly what it
will cost them. I get letters every week from potential buyers who are
almost afraid to ask me what the shipping will be. Why? Because they have
been systematically gouged for it by other sellers who automatically tack
on X amount for out of country, no matter what the real costs are.

It comes down to a simple fact, people
can add. If you charge $15.00 extra shipping for out of the country which
might cover the furthest it might have to go and be considered reasonable.
But for closer in it arrives with $5.00 postage affixed, when they paid
$15.00, well, what would you think ? You would feel ripped off of course,
and so do they. So when they see this fixed rate, drop goes the cart. Even
asking them to email you is risky, as they figure its so bad you don't
want to post it, but it works better than over charging them a flat rate.

Charge what it
really costs, on a case by case basis and not a penny more. And you will
find a lot more repeat out of country buyers.

No Pricing Information
so they are afraid to add to the cart:

The customer figures this way, there's
no price listed on the items means " it's going to cost too much " and won't
even ask, they just drop the cart empty and leave. It's no different than
unmarked merchandise in your local store. They are afraid to add it to
the cart as they don't know how much it will ring up. A perfectly reasonable
thought on their part.

Always, always have a price, even if
it must be a range for services they might pay, give them an idea at the
very least.

The price on the
site or at the cart, is less than it should be due to an error:

Say you, as the seller, make a mistake
and undercharge for something at the site or the cart.

Most online E-tailers won't honor this
mistake and challenge the buyer, whereas a brick and mortar shop will honor
it and everybody knows it. Their are few of us who don't believe, that
" what the price tag or Ad says is what you pay ". We have truth in advertising
laws in most states that demand this, even if the store posted it in error.
We have all seen this, heard of it, or taken advantage of it.

Most E-tailers however, refuse to honor
the sale, as complete. This is worse than cart drop on the part of the
customer, as it's the seller who drops the cart, due to their failure to
own up to their own error.

A better solution, is sell it at the
price stated and take the loss and keep good customer relations. Then go
correct the price at the cart.

It says X price
on the site but they are charged MORE at the cart:This one will
not only cause cart drop, but if unchecked, will be the Kiss of Death for
the site.

Mis leading sales
pitches or specials that aren't, that cause cart drop. even though they
are legal:

Tactics that will not only cause cart
drop, they may lose you a customer for life. Example from my own life recently:

I Wanted to buy X, went to major
X seller. Noted a special " orders over $ 40.00 shipping is free" , which
was plastered everywhere. Two hours of merry shopping later, hit the cart
and was charged shipping on a 60.00 dollar order ! Come to find out,
unless I shipped the order to a certain country, which I don't happen to
live in, no free shipping !!

No where did it
say on these notices of free shipping, "subject to limitations". beyond
must total over $ 40.00

I was livid. This was massive cart shock,
as it nearly doubled what I was expecting to pay. I wrote the company.
The company defended this action saying " it says right under all the notices
of free shipping, see details "

I went back to look. Even told it was
there, I still had a hard time finding it. Why ? Because it was in a font
size one would need a magnifying glass to see, no link color unless you
hovered the mouse over it and the font color nearly matched the background
... all to make sure you didn't notice it.

Which made it perfectly clear they did
this, knowing full well what impression it gave .. which is exactly the
one they intended. That you would fill up the cart thinking you were getting
a bargain and would buy the lot anyway, once you found that the " special
" didn't apply to you. Making it sound like it was your own fault for not
noticing the "see details" link, if you complain of it, even though they
did everything possible to make sure you didn't see it.

I told them what they could do with
their dance around the truth, even if its legal.

I will never shop there again and up
to now, have been on my way to being a regular customer ..

This sort of bait
and switch with the " fine print" is a very old abuse of the buyer
to the point of being cliché and your customer will react most strongly.
They will not only drop the cart, they will most likely drop you from their
list of places to go ... permanently !